Pond Hoppers
by superduple
Summary: Eighteen-year-old Penelope is forced to endure some harsh transitions, on a scale from petty to downright world-shaking. We're taking the concept of "youths on skates" and setting it to an original cast of characters and a fresh environment. Rated T for language, as well as violence down the road.
1. Chapter 1

==Hello, and thanks for stopping by! This is an original take on the concept behind the JSR games. You don't know any of these characters yet, but here's hoping that they grow on you. Also, a quick note. The story is told in first-person past tense. I'm trying something kind of new with the speaker's unspoken thoughts; I'm just shifting them into present tense, without the use of italics or quotes. It flows pretty well from my end, but tell me what you think! Feedback will encourage me to continue with this project!==

Ch. 1: The World Away

"Bored?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, me too."

The two of us sat and stared at a huge roller rink, on the inside of the only entertainment center for a bunch of miles in any direction.

"Entertainment center. I am very. entertained. right now." my friend teased the air. Her name was Trixie, and she had a pixie cut because pixie rhymed with Trixie. She was a damned poet, if you asked me. Her hair was brown.

"My little brother's soccer matches are entertaining by these standards. Pretty similar, actually." I said and shifted on the carpet (where we were sitting) because my left butt cheek was numb. She asked,

"How so, Miss Penelope?"

That's my name, and so you know, I've always been corny as hell. Any chance I get.

"Because, it's a whole lot of kids running around in circles," I smiled big, "and nobody ever scores." I nodded at some hot and bothered kid by the token machine getting the cold shoulder to drive my point home.

Trixie just stared forward with that mopey look she always had. I loved when people got pissed at my corniness, and she NEVER DID. It's a wonder why I hung out with her all the time.

"All of us are just running around in circles, if you think about it." If I were someone else, I honestly don't know which of us I would've hated more.

I narrowed my eyes at her and I swear I couldn't tell if she knew we were in the same room. Fine. Cool. I'll just direct my attention toward the elegant display of pubescent self-consciousness before me.

Most of the people were teens; twelve seemed to be the youngest, probably. In the swirling green and yellow lights and dim atmosphere, though, you didn't think about that too much. It was still probably kind of weird for Trixie and me to be there since the crowd was mostly 12-15, but there really wasn't much more to do in this area after school. The two of us were mostly there for the race, anyway.

Yeah. There weren't many out on the floor that could really cut it in the race. None that could win, definitely—there was even a kid in pads and a helmet. I just… okay. The pace was slow, coasting beside the pop music that was pulsing loud through the walls. I didn't know the song that was playing all too well, but the chorus kept saying "We gon' be alright." It was deliberate and comforting. I was sort of envious of the gentle rolling that was going on, actually. Moving steady like that, you sort of go into a meditative drone of motor skills and either get lost in whatever or really start to focus on one thing. The kids probably didn't think about stuff like that.

But anyway, the lights eventually flickered and suddenly you saw the mass of churning skaters in the middle of the building roll to a sober halt. The song that had been going faded out; I heard "We gon' be…" last, and wished that they would have given it another second. I rubbed an eye and snapped out of whatever sleepy-eyed stupor I had been in.

"Time to shine," Trixie nearly whispered as she stood up and stretched. Her dark green shirt had baggy sleeves that fell to her elbows as she reached her arms up and over her head. The crowd had started to disperse, and some people who were stationed at tables, arcade games, or on the floor sifted into the ring. The lights were up, and now the dreamy looking rink was just a gross green-gray floor under fluorescents. There was one kid who didn't leave the rink when the older skaters moved in; they just stood there grinning like an idiot. Wait… oh my god.

"Nice pads, kid," Trixie smiled and scooted past. I slid up, incredulous, and gave them a once over.

Light blue helmet, light blue pads, and light blue… quad skates. My eye twitched. T-shirt and shorts, skinny, and about 5'3''. A light curl of hair flared between their eyes, and it bobbed as the kid nodded up to speak.

"Good luck!" the little germ squeaked and swirled over to the starting line like a baby blue butterfly. On skates. A skating butterfly. They stopped beside Trixie, and I sandwiched the twerp between us. Trixie shot me a smile over the blue dome, so brightly colored that it made me want to vomit. I must have been making a face because she laughed at me and turned back.

I felt someone pull up to my other side. "Admiring your reflection in that helmet, ginger? There's a race on, you know." Wait that's?!

I 180'd so fast that I almost fell over, then I screeched and hugged him and let go before he had a chance to do anything. "How've you been, you nerd?!" Traius towered over me. He had deep, dark skin, tight dreads pulled back into a long ponytail, and kind eyes that brightened at my reaction. "You're wearing the jacket that I bought you forever ago!" I said as I tugged at the sleeves. It was a dark red jacket with a collar and a white zipper that ran up the middle.

"What can I say—you know what looks good." We both faced forward as people continued lining up and he rested his elbow on my shoulder. "I see that you've still got the whole Denim Fireball 1-2 punch thing goin' on."

"Of course, no sense in messing with a classic." I usually ended up thinking more about how other people looked than how I did, so I never really changed my appearance. Here's what I had to work with, in case you were wondering: frizzy orange hair with frizzy fringe and a kinda long frizzy ponytail with my signature denim jacket (I rolled up the sleeves because it made me feel cool) over some graphic T. Oh, and pants. And roller blades. I've always had freckles, too, even during the winter. I still wasn't over the fact that Traius was there. It had been at least six months since I had seen him last, following his high school graduation and going off to college somewhere on the other side of Almega. He was literally the world away.

"Trixie!" he turned his head to her, still leaning on my shoulder. "How've you been?" She actually jumped at him calling her name, for some reason. Her expression quickly reset to gentle indifference as she replied.

"I'm not bad! What brings you aro-"

"Welcome!" She was cut off by an overly-enthusiastic girl with a microphone standing in the center of the rink. The center was elevated by a few inches, and solid black. "We still have some open spots, if anyone else is interested! Don't be shy, it's free entry! Beta district's Roller Rampage only comes around once a month!" What a lame name.

Most of us knew the drill, and those that didn't just followed the crowd. We were all lined up back from the white finish line, which was rolled out in the middle of the straightaway. The rink was actually pretty huge; about 8 seconds worth of skating lay between the starting point and the turn. There were two straightaways between two turns, moving counter-clockwise. I looked left and right: 10 skaters total. Trixie had nabbed a spot third from the center. Might've been a plus, but not much of one.

"I hope you've been practicing." I teased Traius. "Flexing your brain isn't gonna keep you from getting stomped here." He had started stretching a few moments before.

"Don't worry. I'm sure we'll both just end up eating Trixie's dust, per usual." He pulled his arms behind him. "I'll just make sure to give you plenty of hell in the meantime." His grin was barely discernable as he looked forward confidently. He straightened up and looked around, then spoke quietly. "So who are the rest of these fools, anyway?"

"Um, well…" I really hadn't been paying much attention to them. "The two guys by Trixie are in my grade at our school. Don't know their names, but they've raced here before." They were pretty cocky for how bad they were, but I left that part out. "The ones to your right are new to me, though." We glanced over at them discreetly. Two guys and two girls. They seemed older than us, and the girl on the far end kind of stood out. She was really disheveled, with messy not-quite-shoulder-length hair and a pink hoodie with different color stains all over it. The other three were all wearing red chokers.

"And that one?" He nodded down and past me while holding back laughter. I grimaced.

"Just…" I pinched the bridge of my nose. "…try not to step on anything blue." I looked down at them. The little germ was literally bouncing with excitement.

"No promises."

The chirpy announcer girl chimed in again. "All right, everyone, I hope you're ready! It's two laps! A free pizza coupon and a month of bragging rights are on the line here!" I smiled because Trixie always let me eat most of her pizza, and she always won these things (though I'd probably have to share with Traius this time). Honestly it was a shame that homegirl was only able to cut loose and race in a kids' roller rink, but it worked out well for me. I've always been pretty easy to please… with cheese. HAH! I should remember that one.

We were all lined up with about an arm's length of space between us. Chirpy girl said **"Get ready,"** and we all toed the gray starting line, but I still wasn't over my joke. Fucking easy to please… **"Get set,"** …with cheese. Holy hell I'm brillia- **"Go!"** SHIT WAIT.

Everyone exploded out in front of me while I almost tripped over my own feet trying to get started. "Wake up, ginger!" Honestly I probably had this coming.

Okay, game face! Game time! I got my momentum going with some violent sideways gnashes of skate against concrete and was underway. By the time that I had caught up to the pack, they were almost headlong into the first turn. Trixie was just barely holding the lead—the three wearing red chokers were right on top of her. Traius was a bit behind them, and the back pack consisted of the two kids from school, the germ, pink hoodie girl, and then me. We hit the turn and I saw Trixie drop low and hug the inside so that the older guys couldn't overtake her. Traius was having trouble catching up to the front group, but for the love of god all I wanted to do was NOT be in last place. I gunned it through the second half of the turn and passed Pink Hoodie (okay thank god), but the asshats from school were forming a wall to keep me or the germ from getting through. The kid was surprisingly quick—on quads, even.

The second turn came up. The asshats weren't too fast, so I figured that I could pass them on the outside. They walled me, but as soon as they did, the germ went for the inside. Asshat 1 veered off to cover them, but the germ pulled off some kind of crazy whirlwind spin thing and shot between the two of them instead. Asshat 2 lost his focus and I managed to slip past as well. The germ threw a huge smile back at me as we rounded out the first lap, their front curl of hair fluttering wildly. What in the world _is_ this kid?

Two seconds later you just heard (and felt) a big KLACK—THUMP and some groaning. I glanced back and saw Pink Hoodie coasting toward me, leaving a pile of asshats sprawled out in her wake. My heart sank a little when I met those blank, tired eyes of hers, so I quickly made it a point to get _far_ away from her. The two groups had formed into one (minus two achy schoolboys) as Traius closed in on the front four and the three of us in the back finally caught up to him. Trixie still had the lead, somehow, but two of the chokers were almost literally breathing down her neck. I could've sworn that the temperature in the building was like 8 billion degrees at that point; my feet in my socks felt like a couple of overcooked, soggy burritos. Or something like that.

The germ and I were neck and neck; I would almost pass them on straightaways, but that crazy agility in the turns kept me from overtaking them. In the last turn, they whipped behind me, around me, and overtook Traius and one rather winded choker dude in all of about 1.5 seconds from the inside. The next second, I saw a blur of pink shoot from around the outside to pass all of us, slowing up right before it reached the germ. Traius and I looked at each other in disbelief. Trixie won, with the two of us tying for last. I then began to notice that my legs had been reduced to jelly, and that my chest felt a bit too _on fire_ for me to have landed in last place.

"Well I guess we weren't technically last, since there were two who didn't even finish." Traius said with his hands on his hips, trying to catch his breath. I felt my face flush as I clenched my knees. Okay, the jacket's coming off. To hell with aesthetic.

"And here's—our winner… oh are you… uhm, okay." The announcer girl was coming over the speakers but I couldn't find her. "Whoa." Traius chimed. "Check Trixie out." He pointed over to the wall of the rink. It was supporting her as she sat, her whole body laid limp and drenched in sweat. Chirpy girl was standing around awkwardly, having a difficult time celebrating the blob of Trixie at her feet. Traius shuffled over to them. I followed, very slowly and groaning the whole way.

"I guess she needs to compose herself a bit," he told Chirpy with a big smile. I decided that Trixie had the right idea, so I planted my butt beside her.

"Ugh, well that's fine I guess," she complained after turning her mic off. Apparently she fell right out of character the second her voice stopped screeching over the sound system. "I can't let you all keep sitting in the rink, though. Go over to a table." There was some heavy dissonance between her current demeanor and the outfit that went with her persona. If you're wondering, the outfit consisted of a frilly green top with no sleeves, high-waisted white shorts, and shiny chrome skates. Her hair was light brown, shoulder length with bangs, and it swooped out at the tips. Glitter had been liberally applied to her cheeks and shoulders. Trixie and I nodded pathetically in response to her request.

"Anyways, you guys are her friends so here's her pizza coupon." She handed it to Traius, since he was the only one of us who hadn't melted into a puddle on the floor.

"Thanks, Teri. You're the best," he said, winking big and pointing finger guns at her like a ginormous nerd.

"I'm aware." She offered a deadpan stare and shot a finger gun back at him. "And I'm serious about you sitting at a table." She swerved around and away as the lights started to come back down and the free skate resumed, then yelled back "Y'all've got fifteen seconds. You don't want to get me mad." She smirked with half-shut eyes and faded into the newly formed crowd. She was right. I really didn't want to get her mad.

"You heard her, let's get you all up." Traius offered each of us a hand, and it looked like Trixie's breathing had finally slowed down to normal. I was actually cold with sweat by then, so I wrestled my jacket back on before taking Traius's hand.

"Wait." A question popped into my head as he helped us to our feet. "Her name is Teri?" Both of them looked at me quizzically while I fixed my sleeves back to how I liked them.

"…Yes." Traius answered. "She's worked here forever. She literally _always_ announces these things. How many times have you raced here?" Something somehow seemed to imply that he was maybe sorta judging me a little bit perhaps.

"I don't know. Maybe… thirty times?" I hadn't missed a race day for the last two-and-a-half years, but so what?

"Then how do you not—"

"It stands for Tericia. It's a wonderful name." Holy hell, our champion speaks! Traius looked over at Trixie with some concern in his eyes. I wasn't sure why.

We had wobbled our way over to a square, teal-colored table near some of the less noisy arcade games. I went to sit down and I felt one of my front wheels bump into a soft lump of… something. I fit a rather impressive number of "please don't be gum" prayers into the following three seconds, only to be mercilessly spurned by the god of gross and annoying shit. I said something, probably "fuck", and proceeded to pick at the pink glob with a plastic fork that had been sitting on the table.

I was making progress against the gum, so I diverted my gaze back over to homegirl. Her bangs were still wet and kinda plastered to her forehead, but she didn't seem to mind. Honestly she seemed even spacier than before, which I really didn't think was possible. Traius was fiddling with the coupon by drumming with it against the table, and I remembered that I still wanted pizza.

"Hey, we should cash in your prize, Trixie. I'm starving over here!" The atmosphere was weird and I wanted to liven things up. Also, I was hungry. I gave my newly cleaned wheel a spin.

Trixie looked me in the eyes and gave me some kind of wimpy smile. "You two can share it, Miss Penelope. I'm not hungry at all." Okay, she never really ate a lot, but that was odd. I looked over to Traius for help.

"Yeah…" He hesitated, but in a cool way. "So there were some crazy fast people in that race, huh?" I swear it's like sometimes he could read my mind.

"Yeah, Trix," I picked it up. "I've never seen someone make you work so hard." She ran her fingers up through her bangs and mussed up her hair some, then leaned forward and rested her face in her hands.

"Yup." She was often sulky, but right then I didn't feel irritated or anything. I just really wanted to know what was up with her. She was hard to pin down when it came to asking personal stuff, though.

I scanned the room for the choker trio, but they must've already left. There were some people running down the street outside for some reason, but that was probably nothing to worry about. Pink hoodie girl was sitting over near a wall with the germ; they seemed to be talking about something over sports drinks. I wouldn't have believed it, but Pink Hoodie was actually laughing and smiling. It was almost as if the top and bottom halves of her face didn't match, what with her world-weary eyes and all.

Blah, enough distractions! I have another desperate soul to worry about! I didn't really want to pry into what was on her mind, so I decided to go a different route.

"Traius, do you have any money or tokens?" I asked and slowly stood up, my legs still shaking a bit from exhaustion. He and homegirl looked up at me.

"Uhm, I've got about eight tokens… and five bucks to spare," he answered, fumbling around in his pocket.

"I need all of that. I will pay you back." I stretched my hand out to him and he looked at me like I was crazy. Trixie just stared at me, blankly.

"Why in the world do you need seven dollars' worth of tokens?" he asked, but he was getting the money out so I knew that he'd cave.

"Trixie likes spider rings," I said plainly.

Old mister miser objected. "Those are the cheapest things here! You don't need seven bucks worth of tokens to win one." I narrowed my eyes at him. He was _really_ making an issue of it.

"Trixie, show me both of your hands, please." She did as I asked. "Traius, how many digits do you see?"

"Ten," he answered, and Trixie laid her hands down and smiled a smile that would lull sweet little babies to sleep with its good vibes. I reasserted my outstretched hand.

"She's getting ten of 'em. Keep it up and I'll make it twenty."


	2. Chapter 2

==*insert _SURPRISE BITCH_ here* Betcha thought that this story was gone forever. Well, so did I. But here we are. Hopefully people are still reading JSR lol. I've also edited Ch1 slightly. Some of the writing was pretty cringey in hindsight. Oh well! Tell me what you think. You might want to reread Ch1 anyway. These will also be going on AO3, probably.==

The night air felt electric. The three of us stepped outside into one of those chilling gusts that whistled past your ears and froze them stiff. The wind pressed me back into my coat, but the pavement and stone buildings all around seemed indifferent to it. Some leaves whipped into view, not sure from where, and then fluttered away in a panic.

"Whoa, they glow in the dark!" Trixie fanned out her fingers and admired the ten spider rings, each gently glowing with a different color.

"Well you'd think that they grant eternal life from how gung-ho Penny was about getting 'em," Traius rumbled, still smarting over the blow to his pocketbook. I had even been able to reimburse him for a dollar of it, thanks to my ski-ball chops.

The three of us shuffled away from the neon outline of The Rink and up to the dimly-lit street. Trixie stood on my right, breathing warm air into her arachni-fied hands while she cuddled into the fuzzy hood of her coat. Traius was on my left. He adjusted his earmuffs a little bit, then turned and glanced down the street toward downtown. It seemed like something might have been bothering him, but I decided to leave it.

We stood around, clad in our winter gear with our skates slung over our shoulders by the laces, waiting for the trolley to come by. You see, most travelling where I was from consisted of electric trolleys, walking, or biking. If you were in a hurry, you took the subway. There were several trolleys that passed by us, quietly sliding around on their little rails, but the one that came at 10:00 would go straight to our neighborhood. Trixie found the bench behind us and sat down, letting her skates onto the sidewalk with a gentle clack.

"Thank you again for the rings, Miss Penelope," she said quietly, "They are a wonderful present." I turned halfway around to her. She was looking down at her fingers again with a faint smile. Her eyes were very brown and very distant, though how I noticed their color in the faint light is a mystery. Maybe the sentimental look that she had just made me recall, I dunno. Anyway, she made me smile.

"It's no problem. And it's all thanks to this big guy's generosity, anyway." I pointed back at Traius with my thumb, and she laughed lightly. I expected him to make a crack about me paying him back, but he didn't.

"Penny, you noticed that group of people running earlier, right?" he asked, intently staring down the road to our left. I looked, too, but didn't see anything.

I turned to fully face down the road. "Yeah, I-" The wind picked up and my body jerked with a shiver. "-I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, though."

Then he gave me this weird look. Like, not really angry, but maybe a little disappointed. I scrunched my nose up at him.

"What?" My voice squeaked up high. He looked over to Trixie.

"What about you, Trix?" She looked up at him with a face even weirder than his. Her eyes crinkled together into an expression somewhere between insulted and confused. " _Of course_ it's nothing."

"I just asked if you saw them." His look and his tone were a little softer with her. "Sorry."

"What does that have to do with literally anything?" He turned his back to me while I was talking, laid down his skates, and started to untie his sneakers. Rude.

"It doesn't have anything to do with anything. Guess I'm just a busybody." He was sitting on the sidewalk by then, slipping into his skates. I thought about how his butt was on the cold cement.

Heh. He's gonna freeze his ass off.

…

Anyway.

He hopped upright, then laced his shoes together and through a belt loop on the back of his pants.

"And where do you think _you're_ going?" I crossed my arms and cocked my head some. Sass mode. "We saw those people running over an hour ago. Besides, you'll trip over something and break your neck if you go skating around in the dark like a crazy person." I looked over to homegirl for backup, but she was just looking down and fidgeting with one of her rings.

"C'mon, Ginger. Town is that way and the lighting gets better." He rested his gloved hands on his head. "Besides." He grinned. "I hate not being invited to a party." He smiled big, then gave us a two-finger salute as he turned and started skating off down the sidewalk. I threw my hands up and yelled, "Whatever! Just don't be a doofus, okay?!" He waved back without looking.

"What in the world is he even thinking?" I asked Trixie, though it might as well have been a rhetorical question. Her face was blank and she just huddled up and shuddered a bit at the cold. I sat down beside her and snuggled up close, then continued.

"If he gets himself hurt or in trouble I swear I will end him. He's gonna keep me up all night worrying." I pulled out my phone and checked the time. 9:56. Trixie leaned her head on my shoulder and a piece of fuzz from her hood tickled my nose. I was still freaking freezing.

"I doubt that he would want you to do that." She fidgeted with another ring.

"It's not like he's giving me much choice! I swear, I just don't get you two weirdos sometimes." She didn't move but I thought that I felt her stiffen up.

"There's nothing to get, Miss Penelope."

Just then our trolley scooted around the corner. It was a cute little red-orange car that had a distinctive squeak as it moved. "Topaz Street" read across the electric banner above the conductor's front window. It slid up in front of us and stopped inelegantly, and we saw that the conductor was the only one inside. The door creaked open.

"Hop in, little street rats. Just don't ask me for any cheese." A familiar, short old lady with olive skin, deep wrinkles, and a pristine green and gold uniform teased us into the car.

"Nice to see you, Caroline." Trixie regarded her and stood up. She then offered me her hand, I took it, and her spider rings dug mercilessly into my flesh. Seriously. My face curled up as Trixie pulled me into the car. It was surprisingly warm for being about 75% windows. We had our pick of all the seats, so we chose the two front ones: homegirl on the right and me on the left, behind the conductor's seat.

"Looks like the two of you worked up a sweat today," she said as she turned the crank that closed the door. You know, I bet that newer cars have automatic doors that would be easier on her old lady arms.

"Oh, is it that obvious?" Trixie smiled while she rustled a hand through her already messy hair.

"Sure is, kiddos. I'm lucky! This old uniform cap hides the mess," she said and laughed an airy laugh. It was especially funny since her hair was an inch long at most. The car gave a little jerk and began trudging toward our neighborhood.

Its speed was nothing compared to the subway - honestly I could skate alongside and about keep up - but the view was nice and we were tired. Trixie and Caroline started having a quiet little conversation. I followed at first; they were talking about Caroline's grandchildren. It didn't take long for me to drift off while looking at the scenery, though. It would take about fifteen minutes to get to the stops near our houses. Plenty of time to zone out while those two kept each other entertained.

At first it was just the street full of small businesses and restaurants. The area could have looked residential, if the houses weren't all shaped funny. And weren't painted atrocious colors. And didn't have light up signs in their front yards. I wasted time by trying to read the signs backwards, but after a while the car made a small but sudden shift to the left. This did two things. First, it knocked my precariously-placed skates onto the ground, which might have made me jump out of my skin. That caught homegirl's attention and amusement. But SECOND, it signaled that my favorite bit of the trolley ride was coming up. I picked up my big dumb skates and laid them back on the seat. Trixie snickered at me, I glared at her, and she went back to her sweet little conversation. I went back to staring out the window. Then, all at once and right on cue, everything to the left of the car fell away into an ethereal scene of one hundred dimly lit homes stretching out to the coastline.

The sight was surreal – especially so that night, for some reason. Caroline's trolley route wound through the outer edge of town and down into a quaint residential area. The road down was only wide enough for two car lines, hugging a sheer cliff that reflected blue in the moonlight.

"Nice, isn't it? You never get tired of a view like that." Caroline remarked. We all glanced over the edge of the cliff as the trolley brought us evenly down the rock face. "From up here, those lights put me in the mind of embers in a fireplace." She readjusted her little green cap. "Some other nights, maybe they're more like a jar of fireflies. It's good to keep your imagination going when you get the chance, kiddos." She chuckled to herself.

"If the homes are fireflies and the district a jar," Trixie shifted in her seat and started to get all dreamy-eyed. "…then the ocean beyond could be the night sky."

Caroline hummed in agreement. I decided to interject. "What does that make the sky, then?

"Huh?"

I am such an asshole. "The sky. If the ocean is your metaphorical sky, then the ACTUAL sky is…?"

She frowned at me. "More sky."

"…"

"…"

"Wow. Nice."

Her brow furrowed.

I grinned because I'm an asshole. "Poetic."

"I'd say that it's a metaphor for your sour attitude, Penny." Caroline smiled over her shoulder, mostly joking but kind of scolding.

"Ooohhhh!" Trixie brightened at Caroline's comeback. "How's that, Miss Penny?!" The dork started howling with laughter, in her sort of feathery way.

I felt my face flush red. I crossed my arms with a huff and slinked back into my seat. Trixie got a little quieter and leaned back against her window. I was glaring at her, maybe pouting just a bit, and she smiled back at me. Her eyes looked sleepy. "Your attitude isn't all _that_ bad, Miss Penelope." The moon had poked through some clouds and was shining on her face. I noticed the dense freckles that ran across her nose. Hers were more pronounced than mine, but covered less skin.

"Heh. Well thanks for that."

The trolley leveled off at the base of the cliff. Our surroundings shifted to a steady sequence of cozy houses and sparse streetlamps. I was about to go back into a daze when homegirl pulled the signal for her stop early.

I shot her a look, and she anticipated my question. "I'm gonna stop by the store before I go home."

"Want me to go with you?"

"No thank you. Getting off here would leave you with too much of a walk."

She swung her skates over her shoulder and scooted out of the bus. "Have a nice night, Caroline."

"You too, sweetheart." Caroline nodded at her and smiled.

"See you tomorrow, Miss Penelope!" she called back.

"Stay safe, ya dweeb!"

I peeked my head up so that I could see her walk away. I settled back once she was out of view.

"She's sugar itself, Penny. You two need to take care of each other." Caroline's voice trailed off as she turned levers and pushed switches to get the car moving again.

I looked at her back and propped an arm up on my seat. The car grunted and started forward. "She's a hard one to take care of."

"She thinks the world of you, kiddo. Don't underestimate the effect you can have on people."

I paused. "…Mhm."

We rode in silence for a couple of minutes, travelling a few blocks down Topaz Street towards my stop. The houses were mostly modest with a few exceptions here and there.

…That's Trixie's normal stop. I hope that she gets home safe. Not as if there's actually anything to worry about, but still. And I really hope that Traius is alright. I swear, if he gets himself hurt…

"By the way," Caroline snapped me back to the present. "What in the world did that child have on her fingers?"

It took me a few moments to register what she had asked. "Oh! The spider rings." I guess they were somewhat odd looking. "Just some little knick-knacks that she likes. I got them for her to cheer her up."

She let out a short, quiet breath. "That's nice to hea—"

The calm of the trolley ride was broken by three loud slams on the roof of the car. Caroline flinched at the noise but quickly reacted and threw the emergency break. I caught myself against the back of her seat as the car shuddered to a standstill. The noise rumbled off the back of the car. I whipped around and saw three figures jump from the top of the trolley onto the pavement. It was dark, but I could tell that they were… on… skates? W-What? Why would they…

A subdued alarm sounded from Caroline's console. She glanced over at the flashing indicator, then looked back at me with concern in her eyes.

"We… we need to go," she finished sternly. She tossed her cap into her seat and ordered the trolley door open. I just sort of looked at her for a moment. She glared at me. "Now."

I didn't really know what to say. I glanced outside and saw the streetlights changing color: blinking between red and their usual off-white. My palms were getting sweaty. "I— okay?"

She was out the door before the word was out of my mouth. This feels… wrong. I've never felt like this.

I stumbled out of the car and locked eyes with Caroline, who was under one of the oscillating street lamps. Her gaze quickly shifted from me to an alleyway.

"This way," she demanded. The red and white of the lights cast her in a peculiar way. I started to feel ill. She turned to face the alley but I managed to choke out a question.

"Wait! Why are we…" Caroline stopped but didn't face me. "Why are we leaving the car? Can't we just…"

"There's not time." She half faced me, wearing an unreadable expression. "A storm is about to hit. A bad one. You know what you do during bad storms, right?" She paused, and slightly tilted her head down. "You find shelter."

"But the clouds don't look—"

"Penny." My body jerked. Her gaze intensified. "Follow. Me."

Her voice was normally small, and maybe it still was, but her words felt heavy enough to break every bone in my body. She stopped at the entrance to the alleyway and waited. She wouldn't face me. It was everything that I could do to move, but finally I lifted my foot against what could have been the weight of the world. The two of us were underway, picking our way between the buildings in grave silence.

The lights kept flushing red; even in the darkness of the alleys you could see it. You could feel it. The whole city had gained a heartbeat, and it beat faster and faster into the city's waking nightmare. I wanted to go home.


	3. Chapter 3

==Heyo! Here's chapter three. I'm starting to get into a better rhythm for writing, so the upload schedule might turn into an actual schedule soon. TW for violence in this chapter. Anyways, here ya go. Let me know what you think!==

The alleyways were damp and cold and preferred to funnel the wind rather than block any of it. All that I could see was her back. I didn't dare to look away from her for fear of becoming more aware of all of the lights and noises around me. Caroline trudged through the darkness in silence, occasionally slowing down to check her watch. The sounds of our feet splashing in melted-snow puddles and the uncomfortable clack of my skates against the buttons on my jacket accompanied us. I had just started to find a rhythm in the walking when she came to a dead stop at a non-descript door at the back of a non-descript building. A faint green light was flashing above the doorframe.

"We're going inside, Penny." Caroline spoke softly and turned toward me, her face unreadable in the low light. "You'll be safe in here."

"I—okay." The green that was pulsing from the building was less unsettling than the red that had washed over the streets. Caroline held her wristwatch up to a panel at the side of the door. The two devices beeped in response to each other and the door slid open.

Just as Caroline stepped through and turned to gesture for me, a frigid gust tore through the alley, almost knocking me off of my feet. I grabbed a nearby dumpster to stay upright, but ended up slamming my shoulder into the corner. Before I could mutter a sound, someone else let out a cry of pain from the direction of the street nearby, like they were trying to one-up me or something. I rushed out from behind the building without thinking.

There were four people standing in the street, two pairs, near two stopped tram cars. One person, a middle-aged woman, was writhing on the ground. She must've been the one that yelled. She was in the same green and gold operator outfit that Caroline wore. A man, also in that uniform, stood between that woman and the two others. He was holding some kind of whip-like device in his hand. It was hard to make out the other two at first; a child stood behind an oddly tall girl, the two of them staring down the one operator that was still on his feet. After a few seconds I figured out that the girl wasn't especially tall—she was on skates. My eyelids froze open and my heart dropped into my gut. She wore a pink hoodie.

"Penny!" Caroline shrieked, I jumped out of my skin. "Get over here, now!" I turned to see Caroline's rage-contorted old lady face and let me tell you. If I were someone with a penchant for wetting myself, the color of my jeans would have went ten shades darker right then and there.

The man with the whip turned to us when she yelled, and I turned back just in time to see him take a big can of something right to the side of the head. Within one second of chucking the can, Pink Hoodie was on top of him, raining down fists and elbows until the man couldn't even move to defend himself anymore. I'm pretty sure that he was unconscious. I really really hoped that he was just unconscious.

"Penny I swear to anything if you don't get your little toosh in this buil—" Before she could finish scolding me, the light above the door in the alleyway flipped to red and let out a deafening screech. The door slammed shut. The same terrible screech echoed from other places farther away from us. I covered my ears against the auditory assault and glanced up to see Pink Hoodie scooting over to the little one. The kid was doing their best to block out the noise, but they couldn't fully cover their ears due to their bright… blue… helmet.

Are you fucking kidding me?

The little germ looked up at Pink Hoodie with worry, or that's what it looked like. It was hard to tell in the weird street lights that flashed faster and faster between red and white as the sirens grew more frantic and strained until… until they stopped. And the lights stopped flashing between red and white. They were just red. The color soaked Pink Hoodie from head to toe as she stood to face the two of us. She widened her stance and glared.

"So am I going to need to go through you, too?" Her head lowered and her hands balled into fists at her sides. I tried to stammer out something along the lines of 'No?! What?! Please don't murder me?!' but it just came out as a few gasps and gurgles. Those eyes that had looked like sleep-deprived death orbs were now just sunken pits of black. The operator woman on the ground managed to push herself up onto her hands and knees.

"Caroline! This girl is crazy, radio for help!" The woman scraped out those frantic words just in time to take a roller blade boot to the jaw. I recoiled in fear and nearly fell over myself. I looked to Caroline for some kind of explanation, with so much anxiety and confusion buzzing through my head that I could've passed out. She was just staring at the ground, the anger that she had a moment ago melting into something like grief.

"I'm going to count to ten," Caroline said in an airy voice, with no hint of emotion, "and you two are going to be gone." Her voice was so quiet that it shouldn't have carried more than three feet, but the tone filled the senses of every conscious person on that street. Caroline slowly raised her gaze to meet Pink Hoodie.

The girl's glare softened, but her voice carried the same weight as before.

"Sorry, but I know how this works. I'm not leaving her here with you." Pink was like a statue, and the little germ scooted closer to her. The wheels of their skates grinded softly against the pavement. It was all that you could hear between the words.

Was Pink… talking about me?

Out of nowhere, Caroline let out a sharp sob and turned her gaze back to the ground.

"Penny, you never were a good listener." The old woman choked out the words as she reached for her belt. "I'm… so sorry, sweetheart."

Just then, a large, shining whip appeared in Caroline's hand. Her eyes burned into mine as she reared back and flung the mass of metal rope toward me. The length of it bound my arms and legs. I couldn't squeeze out a single word before every muscle in my body locked, electricity pouring into me. In an instant, I was on the ground. My vision began to blur into a sea of red and black.

Before I lost consciousness, a form appeared between me and Caroline. A sound like a table saw came from one of Pink's skates as she gripped the line of the whip between two auto-rotating wheels. The line snapped and a large electrical explosion knocked her hard to the ground. The whip lost its grip on me, but I was still too, well, _shocked_ to move.

…

I mean, it wasn't very funny at the time, either.

I bobbed in and out of consciousness for a few moments as loud crashes and desperate grunts filled my ears. I couldn't really keep track of the passage of time, but at some point a small figure overshadowed my vision and started pulling at the thick metal cables that were still wrapped around me.

"C'mon, you have to get up before more bad people come!" The germ was struggling to pull the cable out from under me. "The nice girl can't handle much more of this, probly. She's strong but there's too many bad people! C'mon!" I still couldn't even begin to process what was happening, but the kid hadn't electrocuted me recently so I decided to go along with what they said. I managed to pull enough of my weight off of the ground so that they could free me.

The noise had subsided. I slowly sat up and saw Pink coasting up to me. I looked past her and saw Caroline, curled up on her side in the middle of the street. She was moving, and she was in pain. Pink was favoring a hurt shoulder. She leaned down to me, and I finally noticed the blood pouring from her nose.

"Hey, can you move? We need to leave. Now." She looked over to the germ, who had picked my skates up off the ground. "I tried to stop her, but she managed to radio for help. They'll be here any minute."

I looked back at Caroline and couldn't look away. "You… you hurt her. She's… she's hurt!"

"And she electrocuted you, dumbass! She'll be fine, but WE won't be if we don't get the hell out of here!" She kept saying words and I kept not hearing any of them. I just kept staring at the sweet old lady writhing in pain in the middle of the street. Why in the world would she ever hurt me? That's crazy. It's a mistake. Something is very wrong and I don't understand anything that is happening and—

The germ plopped down on my lap and put their hand on my forehead. They started petting me like I was a dog crying during a thunderstorm.

"It's okay. People are hurt but if we don't leave more people will get hurt. They'll pick up the mean old lady and she'll be fine but they'll try to shock you and stuff again so we need to leave now, okay?" The kid just kept looking me in the eyes with a soft smile as they stroked my hair. It did a lot to relax me. I finally decided to continue with the whole "follow people who haven't electrocuted you today" routine.

"O—okay. Thanks." I smiled back at the germ. "Please get off of me now."

The kid jumped up and extended their hand. I let them help me up and was shocked by how well the pipsqueak was able to support my weight, especially on skates. Pink was staring at the two of us like we'd just pissed on her mother's grave. The nosebleed had coated most of her chin.

"Oh, here. You look awful." I pulled my handkerchief from the pocket of my coat and handed it over.

She eyed the handkerchief for a moment before letting out an exasperated sigh. "Okay. Whatever." She took it and applied it to her face. She cleaned up everything that wasn't dried and then used it to stop the flow. "Now can we go? I'd really prefer not to die tonight if that's okay. Unless you two want to do the fighting from here out." She was trying to sound tough but her voice was hilariously muffled with her nose stopped up like that.

"Die? What? Why are we even fighting?! Tell me what is going o—" I felt a gentle nudge against my arm. The germ was holding my skates up to me.

"No more time for talking. Time for leaving."

The streets were dark and sinister. I couldn't see well enough to skate confidently so I stayed by Pink's side in case I needed to steady myself. We kept to the main road for about three blocks before veering off into alleyways. They were hardly wide enough to go side-by-side, but the uneven surface left me clinging onto Pink's arm almost constantly. She didn't seem to mind. Her focus was entirely on getting us… to wherever we were going. The germ flitted along behind us.

My mind felt numb after everything. Honestly, I was perfectly happy in that moment to just focus on not falling on my ass and hugging Pink's very nicely sculpted arm. It was like a beefy pillar of safety wrapped in cotton candy (the candy being the hoodie). She was much less scary now. She stood about three inches above me and was built like a puma, but the intimidation factor melted away as she tugged me along. My thoughts eventually fell on my parents. What is going through their heads right now? They can't leave the house with the storm lockdown going on. But… there's no storm. Just a bunch of crazy tram operators electrocuting kids in the middle of the road and fistfights. I really didn't want to put more thought into what that implied.

"She was a damn warrior." Pink broke the silence. I jumped just a little bit in surprise.

"What?"

"That old woman. I've been in a lot of fights, but I don't even want to know what she was like in her prime." She took her right arm from me, to my slight alarm, so she could massage her left shoulder. "She dislocated it. I popped it back in, even though doctors always tell me not to. She would've taken me out if I hadn't. I was lucky to get out with that and a busted nose." I had no idea how to respond to that. Caroline was like seventy years old and weighed all of 100 pounds, probably. She looked over at me. "I just wanted you to know that I didn't hurt her for no reason. I wouldn't have if I didn't have to, I swear."

"What… did you do to her?" I couldn't make eye contact when I said it. I could feel her frown.

"Well, I hurt her leg. Her knee. I probably broke it." Now she was the one not making eye contact. "You… you know her well?"

As if I could just hold a normal conversation after hearing that. "She was a tiny old lady! That's just crazy! She was super nice and gentle and… how can you act like ANY of this makes ANY kind of sense?"

She grabbed my wrist as we slid to a halt at the edge of a building. Her voice was low. "Look, nothing is gonna make sense for a little while, okay? Sorry. I'm not the best with this sort of thing." She turned back to the kid. "You doin' alright, Sky?"

Huh. It occurs to me that these people have actual names.

The germ chirped in affirmation. Which was odd, but I just went with it. Pink peered around the corner, and I noticed the faint scent of the ocean. We were getting close to the shore.

"Three operators. They're a ways off, but they're between us and the way out," Pink reported. I peeked out around her.

"Why are tram operators attacking people?" Pink just looked at me. I narrowed my eyes at her. I knew she wouldn't explain but I was still hell-bent on being salty about it.

Pink pointed. "Anyway, that's where we're trying to go." The street that we were hunkered down beside dead-ended at another road that ran parallel to the beach. We were very close to the large wall that separated Beta District from Psi. This district wall, like all the others, ran from the center of the huge island of Almega all the way out into the ocean. You could think of it like a pizza. All of the walls jut out from the perfectly circular Central Almega District and cut the island into slices. Pizzas don't usually have one little circular piece cut out in the middle, but you get the picture. We were in the Beta slice. And considering the fact that Pink was pointing to a drainage pipe that led into the Beta/ Psi wall, I assumed that we were heading for Psi.

An anxious feeling started to well up inside of me. "Okay, how are we getting there? Are you gonna fight them, too?" Pink slid over to a downspout that ran all the way up the side of the old brick building.

"Nah. Just watch." She pressed her thumb into the metal, paused, and then shot a smile my way. "Trust me. You're really gonna love this."


End file.
